Apparently today is "Gingerbread Decorating Day" and no better day to publish this gorgeous gingerbread bird's house that I made with my daughter and that was devoured yesterday by her and her classroom mates at school.

The recipe, of course, is from my favourite gingerbread book which is Mima Sinclair "Gingerbread Wonderland" and from which I made, last year, the fabulous suggestions that you can check here, here and here.

Notes:

In order to achieve the best results, don't overwork the dough and don't add extra flour when rolling it.

Respect the "freezing time" step, as it is very important for the final result.

The directions and colours I'm leaving you for the birds, are the ones specified in the recipe.

As you can realize, my birds are horrible and both, my daughter and I, we're very bad at drawing and decorating with royal icing and after a few "bird disaster" decoration attempt, we gave up and just kept them as plain as possible.

My daughter wanted to use green food colouring for the birds instead of the blue specified in the recipe and that's why you can see an horrible green bird that I displayed just for you to see how bad we are with this kind of decorations.

Saying that, here is our Bird House, where the birds have never lived but that was eaten and appreciated by a class full of little "birds".

ingredients:

1 quantity of dark gingerbread dough (recipe here) - Substitute 60g of the amount of flour by cocoa powder, in order to make it chocolate flavoured.

caramel glue:

200g caster sugar

60ml cold water

method:

Put the sugar and water in a large frying pan over a medium high heat.

Without stirring, bring to 160ºC on a sugar thermometer, or until the sugar dissolves and turns a light golden colour.

Swirl the syrup gently in the pan to even out the colour.

Turn off the heat and leave to cool for a few moments to thicken slightly to the consistency of honey.

If the syrup begins to harden in the pan, place it back over a gentle heat until it has returned to the required consistency.

royal icing:

500g icing sugar

2 medium egg whites, lightly beaten

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp water

method:

Sift the sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer.

Add the egg whites and lemon juice.

Whisk on a low speed, for 2 to 3 minutes or until you have a smooth, but not wet, stiff peak consistency.

It should be dense and spreadable but hold a stiff peak. If it's dry and crumbly add a little water, if it's runny, add a little extra icing sugar.

Transfer to a bowl and cover with a damp cloth to prevent it from drying out.

to decorate:

blue, yellow and black food colouring paste

150g dark chocolate, melted

250g large chocolate buttons

100g chocolate sticks

other:

bird house templates (photo from Mima Sinclair book)

method:

Heat the oven to 160ºC.

Cut a large piece of baking paper and roll out the gingerbread dough on top of it until 5mm thick.

Using the templates, cut out the house pieces.

Transfer carefully on the baking paper to a flat baking tray.

Freeze the gingerbread shapes for 5 minutes until hard.

Bake in batches, for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown at the edges.

Bake the ring for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown at the edges.

Leave to cool on the trays for 5 minutes and then transfer onto wire racks to cool completely.

Using bird cutters, cut out pieces from the remaining dough and bake for 8 minutes.

Leave to cool on the trays for 5 minutes and then transfer onto wire racks to cool completely.

To assemble the house, dip one edge of the front wall into the caramel glue until the edge is completely covered.

Attach to a side wall at a 90º angle and hold together for a few moments while it hardens and sets. Continue to stick together by attaching another wall and the back panel so you have the base of the bird house.

To fix the roof panels on, use a pastry brush to coat the edges of the roof panels and edges of the base of the house where you will stick them, with the caramel.

Hold these on firmly for a few minutes while they begin to set. Leave to set for 30 minutes.

Add a little water to the royal icing until you reach soft peak consistency.

Spoon 1/3 into a bowl, cover with a damp cloth and set aside.

In the large bowl of icing, stir through a little blue colouring paste. Spoon half into a pipping bag fitted with a fine nozzle and pipe an outline around the birds.

Add a little extra water to the remaining blue icing to make flood icing (thick but runny consistency).

Spoon or pipe into the centres of the biscuits.

Leave to set completely for about 2 hours.

Add yellow food colouring to the reserved icing and use to pipe wing details and beaks.

Use a paintbrush and black colouring mixed with a drop of water to draw eyes and feet. Leave to set for 1 hour.

Sit the house base on the round base.

Brush the bottom 3cm of the roof with melted chocolate and cover with a row of chocolate buttons.

Repeat brushing and sticking rows up the roof to the top.

Repeat the process with the front but with chocolate sticks, breaking pieces to fit slush with the edges.

Use a small blob of chocolate to stick a couple of birds in place and store the remaining bird biscuits inside the house or in an airtight container.